Some methods of producing pulp molded articles involve a step of transferring a molded article having been formed and dewatered in a papermaking mold to a drying mold for drying the molded article. The technique described in JP-A-10-227000 is included under this type of methods.
According to the technique disclosed, a papermaking mold (upper mold) is immersed in a raw material slurry, and the slurry is sucked up to deposit the pulp component on the inner surface (a papermaking screen) of the papermaking mold. The papermaking mold is pulled out of the slurry, and the suction is continued to dewater the pulp component to obtain a molded article having a prescribed water content. The papermaking mold is joined with another mold (lower mold). The suction through the papermaking mold is stopped so that the molded article is transferred to the other mold by its own weight. The other mold is then joined with a drying mold (another upper mold) to dry the molded article.
However, the operation of transferring a pulp molded article from a papermaking mold to another mold sometimes fails because the molded article has been brought into intimate contact with the inner surface of the papermaking mold (papermaking screen) by the suction force exerted for dewatering. Where, in particular, a hollow bottle-shaped pulp molded article is formed and dewatered on a papermaking mold composed of a set of splits and then transferred to another mold by (i) opening the split papermaking mold with the molded article stuck to one of the splits and (ii) attracting the molded article to the other mold by suction, the papermaking screens provided on the inner surface of the splits leaves their mesh marks on the outer surface of the molded article during dewatering. The mesh marks cause a gap between the molded article and the other mold. As a result, the suction force exerted between the other mold and the molded article tends to be insufficient for stably transferring the molded article between the two molds.
Accordingly, an object of the present invention is to provide a method and an apparatus for producing a fiber molded article in which a fiber molded article formed in a papermaking mold can be transferred to another mold stably and securely.